Wargaming CEO Victor Kislyi on Free-to-Play and Avoiding Business Suicide

When it comes to free-to-play gaming on the PC, itÂs hard to ignore Wargaming.net and the success that theyÂve had with their popular online armored warfare game, World of Tanks. Clocking in with over 35 million registered users, World of Tanks has been a successful endeavor for Wargaming.

In a recent interview with GamesIndustry International, Wargaming CEO Victor Kislyi discussed the success of World of Tanks, and how the publisher has established a global infrastructure by expanding Wargaming by purchasing two additional studios and Australian-based BigWorld Technology to support not only that title, but its other two projects currently in development with World of Warplanes and World of Warships, an expansion so rapid that some would call it business suicide according to Kislyi. But Kislyi disagrees and believes that the added talent of the new studios and being at the front of the service queue by purchasing BigWorld has already been a big boon for WargamingÂs game development.

Every business book tells you that doubling your business in a year is suicide. With our St Petersburg and Kiev studios they don't have to re-invent the wheel, they have a successful hit concept to work with that was pioneered by World of Tanks. But don't forget that with World of Tanks it took more than two years of development before it was live. To get to the same stage with World of Warplanes it took ten months.

Kislyi also discusses the importance of providing their free-to-play games as a service to players, even if a lot of them donÂt pay for in-game items, and he welcomes additional competition in the growing free-to-play game space.

You can read more of Kislyi's interview at GamesIndustry International. If your looking to learn more about World of Tanks, be sure to check out our new World of Commanders website to help you get started and get a leg up on the competition.